4.5 stars. These characters are well developed and adventurous. Fabulous plot, with wicked parts too. Love Emilia and wrath. Suspenseful development throughout too. I want more from these characters. I'm continuing!

First thing first, to me this book is NOT young adult. I know KOTW was marketed as such before it was changed for the sequel, but I think this first book was already not accessible to young readers. Not necessarily because of the sexual content, there’s no *actual* scene of intercourse between the two characters despite a heated kiss, even if Emilia has a lot of sexual thoughts regarding several male characters; but more because of the violent and gore descriptions. Yes, this is a murder mystery, but I thought most of the descriptions would be lighter than that considering it was YA and not adult.

Jumping back to the story in itself, it had an interesting concept, but the poor writing and the insufferable MC ruined my reading.

I was hooked by the murder mystery, even if I’m disappointed we don’t have a clear conclusion to it by the end. Many questions remain and I’m scared the author forgets about it for the sequel. It was fast-paced, and I have to admit I enjoyed that. But the downside of it is, the plot felt rushed sometimes. I was also very interested in the worldbuilding, especially about the witches families, their history, their powers. Sadly, it felt set aside, and all the info dumping is focused solely on how sexy the princes of hell are rather than interesting facts about covens or even the Houses in Hell. Sometimes, the author herself seemed lost in her worldbuilding.

As for the characters, I hated Emilia. Her character was so unbalanced, her actions never stick to her personality (does she have a clear one?) and most of the time, she’s just dumb and horny. Also, the consequences of her actions aren’t relatable, I couldn’t believe she kept getting away without a scratch after being so disrespectful with literal demons that are supposed to kill her in a second. By the way, such a choice of writing dismissed Wrath and the other princes' characters because not once did they felt *that* dangerous. I’d also prefer more confrontations, especially with Envy, so that the plot twists could have a real impact on the reader experience. 

Emilia's relationship with her twin and then her grief suffer from the same treatment. Their bound isn’t well described enough to me, I didn’t feel like they were that inseparable, and honestly Emilia could have grieved on her own for a few months, there would be no story. I can’t tell if I liked Vittoria, we don’t see her much (a problem when her death is the very reason of the book) and Wrath was okay (always humbling Emilia, I loved that) but I’m scared the author changes him too much in the sequel regarding his behaviour at the end. 

Moving to the writing, it was a nightmare. I didn’t remember the author’s writing in "Stalking Jack The Ripper", but in this book? I really thought at some point it would be a DNF because of that. It was all "I do this, I do that, I think about this, I’m scared of that". It felt like reading a diary. The author kept losing herself in her descriptions. I know people liked all the food aspects, but I didn’t. I’m reading fiction, not a cooking book. I don’t care about recipes, I want to know more about the worldbuilding, the characters dynamics, what is happening and where. 

By the way, we have no clue where and when the story is taking place. The author kept talking about "The Kingdom of Italy" which is very vague and not necessarily true depending on the time you’re focusing on (history student speaking here oops). I’ve also noted a lot of anachronisms, especially in the way of talking/thinking ( use of words such as "creepy", "cringe" or "nerve receptors" just after mentioning herbal medicine). Every description was unclear, you don’t know how the scenery and people look like, as if the author was waiting for you to fill the blanks by yourself. 

Also, this book is the definition of "tell" rather than "show". Every needed information is introduced through dialogue (Emilia’s dumb questions, Wrath’s semi-answers, the grandma's stories). Even when Emilia dreams about something, the author makes her character re-thinking about her dream rather than making the reader live the dream at the same time as Emilia. And when I see how much effort the author put into describing food and recipes, I tend to think descriptions aren’t, in fact, such a problem for her. This brings me to the conclusion the writing is just lazy and could have been done way better. 

In conclusion, a very disappointing book despite all those promises. I mostly feel angry after finishing this book, especially towards the author’s writing because it could have been so much better. The concept had a lot of potential but all of it was poorly executed. However, I see why and how it works. Because yes, I still enjoyed the murder mystery, despite having to endure pages of Emilia being annoying and reckless for nothing. And even stranger than that, I want to read the sequel? This is a weird feeling that definitely needs to be scientifically studied! That’s why I think I’ll give a try to the second book, and I hope the sequel will be a bit better. Because delulu is the solulu 🫠

📌 CW/TW: emesis, gambling, magical compulsion/mental manipulation, mutilation, non-consensual touching, self-harm (blood magic)

Kingdom of the Wicked gets barely 2.5 stars from me because of the interesting setting and general premise. The characters were too stereotypical for my taste, and the story is not really clear. 

Emilia is a witch living in historic Sicily. Her sister Vittoria gets murdered, and she summons a demon prince which her grandmother has always warned her about. For most of the time in this book, we just spend the time with Emilia and Wrath which was just a bit boring and not engaging. This can work but not with uninteresting characters like those two are. The storytelling wasn’t great either. Conflicts could be solved quickly if the characters just talked to each other, and some things are just not well explained so that there were a lot of moments where I didn’t know what was happening. Like for example I didn’t understand why no one said anything about Emilia being gone for like two weeks, and I didn’t even know where she’s been. Emilia also apparently cares a lot for a grandma but doesn’t even

visit her when she’s injured

? 

Besides this, this novel had one of my least favourite tropes, the

”we’re suddenly engaged!”

trope. It also irritated me that there were randomly some kind of

vampires

. Towards the end, the deus ex machine moments became more frequent, and it was so obvious who the murderer was. 

Like I’ve mentioned, I really liked the Italian and Sicily setting but for quite some time, I wasn’t sure whether this book was contemporary or historical since there were not enough descriptions. Besides this, the timeline and universe were a bit hard for me to grasp. In contrast, the atmosphere created was quite nice and especially her feelings after her sister’s death were depicted so well. 

I don’t have too much to say about the characters. Emilia is an okay protagonist, but she felt a bit stereotypical to me. Her love interest Wrath is of course muscular and has dark hair. The side characters are in part not well characterized, I think we don’t hear her parents say one word. Besides this, it annoys me that there are of course only demon princes but not princesses. 

Kingdom of the Wicked is probably most interesting for those people that focus on the romance aspects of romantasy. The fantasy elements were unfortunately underdeveloped, just like the story and the characters. 

This book was an absolute feast for me during my reading slump era, which has been prevailing over my life for as long as I can remember. The Kingdom of the Wicked was everything I was hoping it would be, and honestly, more. The pacing was fast and engaging. The mystery element was such that I couldn't put the book down even if I wanted to. The storyline of this book was all I could think about during my waking hours, and sometimes it even encompassed my dreams. The world-building by the author was absolutely amazing and the way she introduced us to the Princes of Hell and slowly immersed us deeper into the Kingdom of the Wicked (literally) had me on my toes, and on the edge of my seat. I can say with firm assurance that I was not bored for a single second. 

The only reason I'm not giving this book a perfect rating is because I feel that the writing didn't flow so smoothly and sometimes it was difficult to keep up with where the author was taking us, because it seemed like she expected the reader to already have some idea about her vision. Secondly, I didn't feel the chemistry  between Wrath and Emilia, and I feel their character exploration was comprised amidst the fast-moving story. 

Overall, however, I would definitely recommend this book to everyone, since it's rapidly carved it's way into my heart (pun) as one of my favourite fantasies of all times. 

This book had all the right ingredients but lacked one major thing: world building. After reading this I still don't know the names of all the 7 princes of Hell, what era this book takes place in, what witches and demons are actually capable of, how the magic truly works...

Disappointed. That's what I am, because I was ready to love this book. The beginning started out strong, I was genuinely creeped out. And then I got bored for the rest of it. 

The writing wasn't necessarily bad but there was just nothing interesting happening in this book. I also didn't really care for the characters, I thought Vittoria was the most interesting but she was dead throughout most of this book, so I guess that says enough. It just all felt like one big filler book for what's to come, if that makes sense. 

I do think the idea of the story is interesting, and I get the picture the author is trying to paint but it didn't turn out quite that well. That doesn't mean I hated this book, it was just meh. Like I said, disappointing. 

I don't think I'll be reading the rest of this trilogy, seeing the reviews it doesn't age that well, especially the last book in the trilogy. But by all means do pick this up if you like romantacy, you might like this more than I did.